Review 3: The Girl Who Played with Fire

                I would classify The Girl Who Played with Fire as a thriller. It definitely has the aspects of a crime thriller because they are looking for refuge who is organizing crimes, including sex trafficking. There are “chase scenes, cover-ups, kidnappings, spies, and espionage” which are all components of a crime thriller. Suspense is one of Larsson’s best talents when it comes to these books. I think it has a small twinge of mystery to it because there are authorities and detectives trying to solve a murder. In these ways it is a very typical for thrillers. What separates it from others is definitely the story. A “random murder” ends up unraveling all the strings of an ex-military man seeking asylum in this country in exchange for military information. Cops are on the hunt for him for numerous charges at the same time the federal government still trying to keep his identity a secret. Scenes where people are being taken to an unknown warehouse to be tortured or digging up bodies in the woods are what make it a thriller. Police are important to the reader because that’s how we find out about most of these things, despite a few details being figured out by journalist Mikael Blomkvist and a technologically advanced girl named Lisbeth. Other subplots, like finding out Zalachenko is Lisbeth’s abusive father, her trying to kill him, and her countless unfair years in psychiatric care also make it a thriller because in a seemingly unrelated way, these are all important to move the plot forward and making sure readers get the full story. So many things happen in this book and something Larsson will bring up in one chapter won’t be addressed until maybe ten chapters later. His books thrive on suspense. This thriller literally makes it impossible to stop reading.